Airwaves Ducati Pleased With Progress At Donington Park - June 16th 2005

Airwaves Ducati were pleased with the progress made during a condensed test at Donington Park which concluded today. Having initially planned a two day test at the Derbyshire circuit, the team were forced to pack all their testing into a solitary afternoon, with the aftermath of a pop festival allowing no track action on Tuesday and blustery wind and rain further frustrating the team this morning. Riders Leon Haslam and Gregorio Lavilla were eventually able to complete 81 and 79 laps respectively, finishing with lap times of 1.32:80s and 1.32:60s.

Airwaves Ducati Team Manager, Colin Wright, was pleased with the progress: "We originally planned two full days of testing and had plenty we wanted to achieve, with in excess of 20 tyres and new Ohlins front forks to try out. It was frustrating to lose so much time but when the conditions finally allowed us out on track this afternoon, the guys got a number of quick laps in and we completed a good proportion of our aims. The TT25 Ohlins front forks have been developed and used at MotoGP level and we're happy with the way things went with them today. All in all, we've squeezed two days testing into one afternoon so we're looking forward to getting to Knockhill and building on what we've achieved".

Leon was equally pleased with the test: "It was frustrating to only get on track this afternoon but we put in some pretty reasonable lap times and were close to the lap record, especially as the conditions weren't fantastic. We've done a lot in short space of time and we'll get to Knockhill ready to fine tune things further for another good race weekend."

Gregorio was happy with what he'd achieved in the short time available: "The weather conditions were a trouble but we achieved a lot of what we had planned. I got into a good rhythm on the bike which is great news for the rest of the season and makes a change from the constant pressures of a race weekend. Now we need to build on the progress we made today at Knockhill in 8 days time. I'm looking forward to the race".

The team now head to Scotland for the seventh round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship which takes place at Knockhill on the 26th June.